Attorney General Bird Issues Report on Sanctuary County Investigation

DES MOINES—Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird today released her report on Winneshiek County Sheriff Dan Marx’s February 4, 2025, Facebook post claiming that he would be a sanctuary sheriff and refuse to enforce immigration laws. The report concludes that the post violated Iowa Code Chapter 27A, which prohibits state law enforcement from discouraging cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

Governor Kim Reynolds sent the Attorney General’s office an official complaint for investigation following the post. On February 14, Sheriff Marx responded and explained that his office has complied with all 21 of the ICE detainers that it has received.

“Iowa law makes clear that there are no sanctuary counties,” said Attorney General Bird. “Any reports of sanctuary counties or sheriffs will be investigated. Our investigation into Winneshiek County found that the sheriff is violating the law, and we are giving the sheriff a chance to fix the problem. Failure to do so means that his county may lose all state funding.”

Iowa Code Chapter 27A prevents discouraging the enforcement of immigration laws. The sheriff’s Facebook post discourages cooperation with federal immigration authorities by making false claims and threatening to interfere with enforcing ICE detainers. Failure to fix a violation of the Iowa law results in a loss of state funding. The Attorney General proposed a solution that would avoid that loss in funding.

The Attorney General’s office will close the investigation once the sheriff has issued the clarifying post.

Read the full report here.

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For More Information:

Alyssa Brouillet | Communications Director

515-823-9112

alyssa.brouillet@ag.iowa.gov